An empire is a group of countries or states that is controlled by the strongest country in the group.

The ruling nation has to have a strong sense of national pride

The people in the ruling country need to support the conquest

The ruling nations take over other countries for several reasons:

Reason # 1: The ruling nation has a leader who can convince citizens that they are taking over other countries to help the people

◦For example, in Great Britain the leaders told people that as white Europeans it was their job to civilize other countries

Reason # 2: The ruling nation will conquer countries that it sees as a threat

Reason # 3: The ruling nation thinks they will benefit economically from taking over other countries.

Reason #4: The ruling nation wants to create a “buffer zone” of countries to protect itself from attack

Reason # 5: The ruling nation wants to spread its religious ideals.

Reason # 6: Power

The ruling country needs to have a strong military

◦A strong military helps the country to take over and to control the people once they have taken over

The ruling country also needs to have strong diplomacy

◦They need to be able to convince other powerful countries that building an empire will not threaten the balance of power

There needs to be countries to conquer◦These are usually countries who are having economic and political difficulty

◦Also, sometimes leaders in poor countries are willing to sell their countries for power or wealth